Prejudice
by nachonaco
Summary: PG13 to be safe.  Syd and Des embark on the greatest, potentially deadliest journeys of their young lives.
1. Default Chapter

A/N: Okay, Spice of Life, your 'Hate Crimes' story gave me the inspiration for this story. So I say to you, THANK YOU!  
  
Prejudice  
  
Syd Lipsky sat in her fourth period computer lab class, swiveling around in the chair, bored. She was a perfectly normal girl, black hair, green eyes, white skin. But there was something that made her different from all the rest. She and her twin sister Des were synthetic. Two days ago, she had accidentally lost control of her powers while trying to get into school. After a basketball game the night before the incident, she had let her metal claws grow.  
She was ashamed of how she was born. 'Synthetic,' she thought. Syd quickly busied herself with her typing level, which was vastly improving. "Dun, dun, dun, I'm on it, I got it...I can do anything...." Syd sang to herself, accentuating each note to the song with a quick keystroke. The bell loudly rang as the 'computer geeks' groaned. Syd was one of the 'geeks', yet she didn't show it around her friends.  
Syd slung her purple and orange backpack over her shoulder, preparing to go to fifth period home economics. "Hey, Syd!" Her best friend, Sam Perfect, stopped her at her locker. "Hey, Sam. 'Sup?"  
"Nothin' much."  
"Same." The bell rang, catching both teen heroines.  
"Crap." They both exclaimed before running through the halls to room six.  
"AUGH!" Syd exclaimed as she tripped and was sent flying past the door and into another wall, more specifically a locker. She hastily grabbed her books and stepped inside the room. "Sorry, Aunt Jessie..."  
"Just sit down, Syd." Jessie was exasperated by her eldest niece's habit of tardiness. It was not a trait that, in Jessie's opinion, Syd should not be so proud of. The lesson continued, with Syd and Sam dozing off in their seats, as was usual. After the bell had rang, freeing the other students from Jessie, she walked over to Syd's desk and yelled, "WAKE UP YOU LAZY-" Syd and Sam quickly jolted up, scared to death of the loud- mouthed woman. "Sorry, Mrs. Barkin." Sam quipped.  
"Arh....whatever...."  
Syd and Sam stepped out of the room, yawning. "God, I love that class."  
"But you hate my aunt, Sam."  
"I know, but the nap's worth it."  
"You're weird."  
"I know."  
Syd and Sam walked over to Syd's locker. The locker had the word 'SYNTH' on it.  
"Oh..." 


	2. Find Your Center

A/N: The reason these chapters have been so short is the buildup of suspense. You know, leaving you guys hungry for more. Enjoy!  
  
To say that Syd Lipsky's life was free of stress would likely be an understatement. This statement, however, had shown the recent vandalization of her locker had proved she could indeed go down farther on the path of depression. "Syd, it'll be okay..."  
"No it won't! You didn't see what they called me, Aunt Jessie!" The teen hero sobbed.  
"What did they call you?"  
"A-A synth...."  
"Syd, it's no big deal...." Jessie tried to comfort Syd.  
"Y-yeah...I know, Aunt Jessie, but..."  
"....But you're still upset."  
"R-right..."  
"We'll get this settled, Syd, don't worry."  
"I'm gonna go upstairs."  
"Okay. Need anything?"  
"No thanks."  
Syd trudged up to her third-floor bedroom, flopping down on the purple bedspread, gazing at the black ceiling, orange walls, and purple walls. "Sydstem voicemail. Thirty-seven messages," a computer voice rang inside Syd's pocket. Syd pulled out the purple and orange device, and checked them. "Syd, it's Ron." Syd rolled her eyes as the message continued, "You're not going to let those vandals win, are you, Syd?" The message abruptly ended, Syd was glad, she simply could not take the stress any more.  
The back of Syd's head immediately found the pillow as she closed her eyes. Just calm down....find your center...inhale...exhale...she thought. But, she discovered, this attempt would not work. She allowed her mind to wander, back to her initial creation. Everyone wonders about the circumstances of their birth at some point in their life, Syd found it relatively early in her life. She was a tool, a weapon to destroy her own parents. Granted, she hadn't been blind to her purpose...surely, hopefully, the other citizens knew that.  
As the brick crashed through her third-story window, she knew. She knew they didn't give a crap if she had been rehabilitated. She knew they were bloodthirsty. Her heart pounded in her chest as she realized they were only after one thing.  
Synthetic blood. Her blood. 


	3. The Plan

            "Beautiful."  Syd's clone's voice whispered upon the sight before her.  Syd Lipsky's life was rapidly unraveling before everyone's eyes.  The clone had been beaten by Syd too many times to count, and finally,  _finally_, the brainless git was getting what she deserved.  Turning around, the clone picked up a handgun.  Not just any handgun, mind you, the handgun that would destroy Syd Lipsky.  Of course, there would have to be an incident on a mission to disable the healing factor that the buffoon possessed.  Disarming that power would be no easy task, yet it was easier than convincing Middleton High School that Syd and her sister Des were evil.

            The clone examined the handgun.  When she had purchased the gun from another villain, it seemed a godsend.  Getting her revenge, the clone mused, would be killing two birds with one stone.  Well, literally killing one, figuratively killing Jessie as well as Syd.  The S-Clone hypothesized that if anything lethal were to happen to either Syd or Des, Jessie would have gone mad with grief and committed suicide.  Of course, this was only a guess, but a rather probable guess.

            Two days following the window-shattering, Jessie had organized an assembly.  The auditorium was crowded beyond belief, and hostility in the air only seemed to worsen the current situation.  "I know one of you attacked my niece," Jessie's voice boomed through the microphone, "...and I want to know which one of you."  Everyone in the auditorium was dead quiet, especially Syd, Des, Sam, and Kim.

            The group of friends left the assembly after it had been adjourned, Syd's spirits less bright by the second.  "This is only going to cause more attacks, until I'm dead."  She whispered, having barely any ability to speak loudly or clearly since the vandalization.

            "Don't talk like that, Syd."  Sam replied.

            "I can't help it, Sam," Syd muttered.  "Just because I was born differently than they were doesn't mean I'm evil, or inhuman, or anything else they're saying about me.  I save the world, for God's sake, that's a far cry from evil if you ask me!"

            "We know that, Syd..." Ron had followed them as well, and spoke up for the first time.  "But they don't.  They don't know what kind of friend you are."

            "I'm sure they'll come around, Syd..."  Des tried comforting her sister, but Syd didn't seem to want it right then.

            "I need to be alone, guys, I'll see you later."

            The clone was still preparing for Syd's demise, carefully plotting each and every little detail.  It would be a trap, and Syd, the great idiot, would likely fall for it.  The clone typed furiously, her fingers hitting each key like lightning.  A list of Syd Lipsky's greatest weaknesses had been compiled over the span of a year, the S-Clone glanced at the first-listed: 'family'.  All the S-Clone needed to do was abduct Syd's family and then the git would surrender, as long as her family was safe.  "But," the S-Clone realized aloud, "which one?"  The answer hit her like the brick that had shattered through her enemy's window: the little Barkin boy, Syd's cousin Drew.

            The S-Clone knew, of course, Syd loved her five-year-old cousin, and would surely cave in if she thought he was in danger.  She would just need the right opportunity to kidnap the boy......but how?  'Perhaps,' the clone thought, 'I can take him while Syd's babysitting him...that'll make her feel even more guilty.'  The plan was all set.  Syd would regret all those missions she had defeated the clones.  However, regret would not last terribly long, for she would be dead soon after.

            Day by day, things got a bit better for everyone, but the nightmares still haunted Syd.  The dream of death hung over Syd like a dark, dark cloud, and only darkened, lightened only during daylight.  The nightmares were always recurring, she was being tortured or murdered, or watching the very same thing happen to her family and friends, always at the hands of the MHS student body, or the clones.  Usually, they were chanting 'Synth!  Synth!' if they were torturing Syd.  To Syd, calling her a synth would be the same as a racial epithet.

            The nightmare got worse the night before Drew was taken.  She had the unfortunate experience of watching her cousin being buried.  She watched the scene, ashamed she had let this happen.  Nothing was more horrible than watching her aunt and uncle, both usually very wooden in their emotions, fall apart, crying.  Syd woke up.  Waking up was a gift at that moment in time.  Until she saw the bullet hole through the repaired window, permeating through the windowpane, and lodge in the closet door.

            She had to know who was plotting to kill her.

            And she had to know immediately, before it was too late.


	4. Bait

Finding the perfect blade was tough. Each was perfect, the clone could imagine killing her victims with them all. The enemies would pay...they'd pay big. All the clone had to do was wait for that evening, when Syd would be watching her cousin. Then, the clone would bind and gag the teen heroine, kidnap her cousin, then walk out the door, with no one to follow, at least, not until Syd finally figured it out. The ditz would probably take hours to figure out how to break through her bindings, and therefore would have a chance of being too late to save her favorite cousin.  
The clone grinned, caressing the blade with her fingertip, a small bit of blood escaping through a cut. She imagined what it would be like to see her foes being violently murdered by this weapon, of course at her hands, and it only made her grin the brighter. There would be no way of getting caught, either. The police would either never find the bodies, or the crime would never be reported. The S-Clone couldn't bet on the latter, so the former should be carefully executed ('Pardon the pun,' the S-Clone mentally chuckled) to prevent anyone figuring it out.  
The Drew child would be wonderful bait, but what would the clone do once the mission was over and she had won? Would she murder him, too? Or perhaps brainwash him and force him to work for her the rest of his life? The clone didn't waste another second thinking of her plan, it would be 'by ear'. Hiding the knife in a pack, and rope and tape in it too, the clone set out for the kidnapping.  
Syd and Drew were blissfully unaware of the attack that was soon to occur as they played Xbox, some type of basketball two-player game to be exact. Each hand deftly moved across the controllers, Syd was almost as good at video games as she was at saving the world. Syd stretched, got up, muttered that she was going into the kitchen to fix herself a sandwich, and excused herself to go to the kitchen. Humming to herself, she made her sandwich, and retrieved a soda. After closing the fridge, she heard a mighty crash and then Drew screaming. Syd raced back into the living room, only to confront the clone.  
The clone was holding the screaming boy by the neck, Drew being elevated at least three or four feet above the floor. "I wouldn't take another step, Syd." The doppelganger sneered threateningly.  
"Let. Him. Go."  
"I don't think I'll be doing that at the moment." The clone forced Syd's head down, hitting the coffee table. Syd blacked out and the S-Clone bound her, leaving her and taking off into the night with her new 'sidekick'. Twenty minutes later, Syd groaned and opened her eyes, everything had a fuzzy look to it before she came into focus. "Syd?" Jessie's voice was quiet as she looked at her niece. "Syd, what happened? Where' s Drew?"  
"Arh...the...clone."  
"Wh-what?" Jessie nearly lost all the color in her face.  
"The...clone....came....and...took...Drew....hit me...and caused me to hit the coffee.....table." The pain was grating, Syd felt like her head was being split open in multiple places.  
"Syd.....are you joking?!" Jessie nearly fainted, as well as her face turning ghost white.  
"N-no...I'm sorry....I tried...."  
"I know, Syd, I know...let's just try to focus on how to get him back, okay?"  
"Okay..."  
Jessie and Syd arrived at the lair; both gasped at the sight before them: Drew was being held by chains over a shark tank. "LET HIM GO!" Jessie roared, ready to deactivate the clone. "Aunt Jessie, no," Syd tried to restrain her aunt. "She'll hurt Drew."  
"Smart girl, Sydney," the clone grinned evilly. "it took you that long?"  
"Shut up!"  
"Ah, ah, ah." S-Clone shook her head and lowered Drew a little bit. The frightened little boy looked at his mother and cousin with an expression of hope and fear, afraid he was going to die. "Not another step, you two." The clone threatened.  
"What are you doing with my cousin?!" Syd demanded.  
"It's quite simple. I just need to make Jessica suffer as much as possible, and I figured her son would be the fastest route to psychological breakdown."  
"You're sick." The teen heroine defended her aunt.  
"Not so, just misunderstood. Maybe I should tell you what my intentions were..."  
"YOU THINK?!" Jessie spat.  
The S-Clone lowered Drew a few inches more. "My, my, are you really this stupid, Jessica, risking your son's life?"  
"Shut..." The S-Clone fired a fiery beam at Jessie, who seemed somewhat unfazed, but taken aback.  
"Now, you will listen. You see, I had gotten sick of Dementor's plans...never really wanting you to die, Jessica, but wanting you to be tortured...I, however, wanted you dead. So, I and the Des clone took the liberty of resigning, and am now working toward my revenge. You see, Jessica, once Drew's dead," she lowered the chains a bit more, "you will not have reason to live." The chains were nearly at their limits now; the sharks could almost reach the boy, they could smell his fear.  
"Just to make sure you don't escape..." the S-Clone walked over to the computer console, pressing a rather large red button, which caused a large cage to drop down over the unsuspecting victims. "Oh, well, this is just marvelous." Syd mused sarcastically. Jessie slumped down to the floor, buried her face in her hands, and cried. Syd hung her head, unable to think of a way to help her cousin. "I'm sorry, Aunt Jessie. I'm so sorry...." Syd whispered, her inability to speak loudly rushing back to her.  
"It isn't your fault, Syd."  
"Yes it is..."  
"Syd, calm down...you didn't know they'd attack..."  
The clone walked off, Drew's weight would now cause the chains to lower, and the two annoyances, the teen hero and the former hero, were going to die soon enough. S-Clone had cautiously planned this for months, even when she was working for Dementor. The reason she had quit was easy: she wanted full revenge, not half-baked torture. She had left a note, explaining all this, and then stormed out of the lair, finding another old one, and had stayed there ever since.  
She thought this change was for the better, she had gone far enough to capture Syd Lipsky, a teen hero, and her aunt, a former teen hero. Dementor had once said that Jessie tried to stop him from dominating the world, and that the clones' sole purpose was to destroy her, mentally or physically. Now, she had the only woman standing in her way of world domination nearly defeated, the clone just had to further the idea of Jessie's spirit being crushed to the point where she had no desire to live. It surely wouldn't be long now...There was a mighty sound of jaws snapping, a young boy screaming, and two women screaming. The S-Clone imagined that the chains must have finally dropped. "They dropped all right!" Syd spat after using her mind-reading abilities. The child clung to Syd's neck, both of them drenched, a small river of blood coursing from Syd's shoulder. "They dropped when I destroyed them and caught my cousin!"  
"You clever little.." 


	5. The Fight Continues

A/N: Also, this takes place after PS&D2, but I've still got to finish that.  
  
S-Clone glanced at Syd. "You...little...." She couldn't even finish her own sentences as she pulled out the knife that would have been used to kill Jessie. "Well...at least one person will die as planned..."  
"Have you forgotten the healing factor?"  
"Why, no, I haven't. You see, when you drenched yourself to save your cousin, the water was, unknowingly to you, laced with an agent disabling it."  
"You're lying."  
"Explain the shark bite."  
"Well, I..."  
"Hmph. I see you cannot. Do you give in?"  
"Y-yes..."  
Syd dropped to her knees, admitting defeat. She asked herself, 'why am I going through this if the clone had already won?' Soon the clone would win. Syd winced as the S-Clone put the knife to her neck, and a trickle of blood emerged, making Syd gasp. The clone forced the knife down deeper, Syd fainted. Removing the blood-stained knife, Syd's double gasped at the sight before her: Syd's hands were rapidly flaring, her eyes fluttered open, and she stood up on wobbly legs. The clone glared as Syd took a few steps back, her hands powering up.  
The clone, thinking quickly, fired one of her firebeams at the ceiling, hitting a sprinkler, causing a chain reaction. Syd, whose hands had been flared as the sprinklers hit them, screamed. Due to the high intensity of her flaming hands, a drastic temperature change like that could have killed her. Syd backed up, her ankle level with the floor and wall. Her clone lunged toward her, preparing to attack. Syd quickly somersaulted out of the way of danger, her heart pounding.  
"You...think...you'll beat...me..." Syd was weak, an easy target for the clone, who seemed all too amused at Syd's attempt of survival. Grinning, the clone threw the knife at Syd's already-wounded shoulder, deepening the wound and causing her foe to writhe in agony, a previously unforeseen vision for the clone. Her enemy nearly dead, the double strode towards Syd with the knife. Struggling to get up, the teen hero realized she was going to die. She didn't know exactly when, but she knew it had to be soon. Sticky red blood dropped to the floor as the clone forced the knife down, down into Syd's shoulder, destroying any chance of movement from that arm. "One limb down...three more to go, then the head." The clone muttered evilly. Using her good left arm, Syd began to climb up the wall and hang from the ceiling. The clone pulled out the handgun, fired at Syd's left leg, Syd gasped and that limb dangled uselessly in the air. Syd gasped as her other limbs fell prey to her foe's violent weaponry, and Syd would surely die soon. Barely conscious, Syd rolled over out of the line of fire. Hiding behind some crates, Syd quietly, cautiously caught her breath.  
Sure that Syd would perish, the clone fired at the wooden boxes. Syd ducked, wondering if she'd get out of this alive. Memories of her life rushed before her eyes, like the time she had gone on her first mission, it was minor, but it was something. Then, she thought of the time when she had first babysat her cousin. The little angel was asleep twenty minutes into it, and Syd had put him to bed. The third thought was of her first basketball game, that fateful basketball game where her 'abnormality' was revealed to the public...The anger of the event caused Syd's eyes to glow, and her shoulders and legs immediately welded back to the skin and bones, she had been healed. Syd concurred that, in the extreme situation, her healing factor had temporarily returned. It would serve her well in this battle, this she knew. She emerged, fully confident and fully healed, invincible once again.  
Jessie had heard the mighty crashes and feared for Syd. Every once in a while there was a pregnant silence, then more bangs and crashes. The clone tossed Syd through the thin metal door, breaking it, and knocking the teen hero out. Jessie bit her lip to keep from screaming. The clone stepped forward toward Syd's body, and placed her claws on Syd's neck, flaring them.  
Syd stopped breathing. 


	6. Slave

"SYD!" Jessie screamed.  
No response.  
"Syd, please, wake up!" Jessie was shaking from fear.  
A cough was Syd's only way of communication, then a groan, blood coming out of her mouth.  
"Syd..." Jessie took a step back as the clone advanced on her.  
"Guess who's next, Jessica."  
Jessie wasn't afraid. "You killed my niece." She whispered, her eyes narrowed into slits.  
"Her stupidity killed her, she believed she could beat me."  
"SHE COULD HAVE!"  
"Well, I guess we'll never know, will we?" The clone laughed and kicked Syd's side, Syd weakly opened her eyes, quietly breathing, and winked at Jessie, signaling her to play along. Jessie got the message and winked, the clone did not take notice of this improvisation.  
"N-no..." Jessie muttered.  
"You know, Jessica, there is a way to redeem yourself."  
"How?"  
"Help me take over the world."  
By this time, Syd had managed to weakly crawl up the ceiling and knock out the lighting system. The backup lights appeared, but were not nearly as bright as the first set. The only thing that gave away Syd's appearance were her demonic purple-and-orange eyes, a surefire sign she was about to attack. Breathing hard, the teenager with the flame digits released her metal claws, about to kill the clone once and for all.  
The clone looked up, true hatred in her eyes, made visible and somewhat eeriely illuminated by the backup lights. "Try to save your sister, Syd," she whispered. "if she isn't already dead, that is." Syd wasted no time, quickly creeping on the ceiling, she melted the door with her hands, stepping through it. The room she had entered was dark, save for an electric-blue oval-like shape. Taking a few steps forward, Syd saw what was in the tube. Her sister's body, frozen inside, was trapped. Syd flared her hands, ready to destroy the prison. A Des clone stepped out from the shadows. "I would not do that if I were you, Sydney." She whispered menacingly.  
"What the heck did you do to her?!"  
"It's quite simple, really...you see, all it took was a bit of anasthesia in her burrito at Bueno Nacho. Of course, this wasn't your standard sleeping gas..." the clone paused to grin. "You and your sister and your aunt will work for us as slaves. If you refuse..." Syd watched the ice melt, draining from the bottom, and boiling hot water replaced it. The unconscious Des seemed to struggle, her eyes opening, and she began clawing at the glass. The Des clone pressed a button, the ice reappeared. "If you refuse, that'll be a permanent condition. Do you understand?"  
"Y-yes....."  
"Good." The D-Clone chained Syd to the wall, released Des, chaining her as well. "And, just in case you try escaping, Sydney, Destiny, those chains are waterproof and fireproof."  
"Syd...how could you do this?" Des asked of her twin sister.  
"I don't know, Des, I'm sorry..."  
A bang was heard from the other room, then the S-Clone and D-Clone dragged Jessie's nearly-lifeless body, chaining her to the wall. "SHE WASN'T IN OUR AGREEMENT! LET HER GO!" Syd roared.  
The S-Clone laughed as hose-like devices wrapped themselves around Des' arms and legs, and finally a fifth one on her neck, which suddenly turned red hot, Des gasped, and the clone finally stopped. "Don't raise your voice, Sydney, it might endanger your sister's life." 


	7. Family Ties

A/N: I'm not really sure this is soft enough to be PG anymore, but never fear, this will be an EXTREMELY MILD PG-13.  
  
Training under the clones hadn't been easy. Syd and Des tried as hard as they could, but for the villainous S-Clone, their efforts were lacking. One night, in their quarters, Syd sat on the dingy mattress that was her only worldly possession at that moment, and sighed. Jessie and Des walked in. "Syd?" Des' voice drilled through Syd's thoughts. "Yes?" Syd responded.  
"Have you figured out a way to get us out of here?"  
"I can't."  
Des glanced at her sister in the dim light, their only source of light a small bulb hanging from the ceiling, always blinking. "You can't?"  
"No."  
"Oh..."  
Jessie spoke up. "Girls, as long as we're here, we'll have to deal with it. Understand?"  
Syd nodded and flopped down on her bed, sleep overtaking her once again. She had longed for the opportunity to see her boyfriend Josh, and her dream was of him. She was dancing with him, gracefully. Syd was abruptly awoken by the clones, who were screaming at the trio of heroes- turned-slaves to get up. They did as asked, Des was weakened almost instantly during that day's excruciating training session. The S-Clone walked over to Des' near-unconscious form, and injected her with something. Des screamed and fainted. Immediately, her body began to shake violently as she opened her eyes, glowing blue and silver. "Mind control," the clone explained, "isn't it a wonderful thing?" Jessie stepped toward the clone, ready to strike her. Syd held Jessie back, afraid the clone would kill her.  
"Destiny. Destroy them."  
"Yes ma'am." Des answered, lunging at Syd, who could only feel one thing as Des placed her ice-covered hands on her neck: pain. It was not just physical pain that injured her at the moment, rather psychological, as it seemed odd to her that her own flesh-and-blood sister was killing her. Syd's internal temperature dove, rapidly reaching below zero. Thinking quickly, the Shego-like teenager managed to get Des off, and Syd slapped her, Des snapped out of it.  
"Huh? Wha-?"  
They never spoke of that again. Months later, Jessie and Syd were sitting in the slave quarters, Des had been taken by the clones for 'experiments'. Jessie had been allowed to keep Drew, she was glad for this fact. He lay his head on her lap and Jessie began stroking his hair with her hand. Drew liked that. Syd leaned against the wall, happy that someone there had a mother to comfort them. As Syd looked out the window, gasping at the marvelous sight of a full moon, she prayed, watching the moon's silvery ambience. She prayed that everything would be okay for the rest of her family and friends. "Why are they so cruel?" Syd whispered to herself.  
"Because they want us dead, Syd." Jessie responded quietly.  
"I think someone small might be able to get us free..."  
"How on Earth would that work?" Jessie raised an eyebrow, wondering if Syd had recently been exposed to low oxygen levels.  
"We've got to get Drew out of here. He can go get help."  
"How? Syd, if they see him, they'll kill him."  
"No, they won't."  
"What?"  
"If I go with him..."  
"No."  
"Will you listen?!"  
"No, Syd. If they see either one of you trying to escape, you'll die."  
Syd sighed. "Fine." She was determined to get them out, although she had no idea how she was to go about doing it. Since she had trained so hard, she imagined, she had earned a nap. She dozed off for a good hour, before being awakened by Jessie's frantic screaming. "Destiny needs someone to practice on. Now, let go of the boy." She heard her clone's voice scold. "No! I'm not letting you take my son!" Jessie's tone was tense; she did not intend to give in so easily.  
"There is no way you can give in. Surrender the child."  
The clone struck Jessie across the face, grabbing the frightened boy. Jessie glared at the clone, five deep, bleeding scratches running along her cheek. The clone left with the boy, Drew's screams permeating through the cold November air. "Drew..." Jessie whispered, covering her face with her hands, and sobbed. Syd spoke up. "Aunt Jessie....I'm so sorry..."  
"Syd, we've got to get him back...."  
"I know."  
The small five-year-old was brought screaming and kicking into the arena before he was drugged, the mind-controlled Des eagerly awaiting a weak target. Once the child was killed, she would destroy Syd, then Jessie. One of the differences between the mind control Drakken used and the ones the clones used was brainwashing. Des had no qualms whatsoever over murdering the young child, the clones had introduced a new condition towards her and her alone: kill and you will survive. Darwin had established it as 'survival of the fittest', however, the clones had some alterations done.  
Two S-Clones brought in the unconscious child, who would wake up soon enough. The first clone, the one on the left finally spoke. "Maybe we should try the maze exercise, it'll be more interesting."  
"True..." The second clone agreed. "...especially for Des."  
Des had been injected with several new factors, including a virtually- indestructable mind control formula. No one could beat her in a fight, no one dare try, for they would surely succumb to oblivion. Soon, Des would rule the world with the clones. Walls rose to create a maze pattern; the clones laid Drew at one entrance, Des was stationed at the other. Syd watched from the rafters, knowing she would be instantly killed if the clones saw her. Stealthily, the teen hero moved a little to her right so she could see just what was going on. Des had found Drew, and began attacking him. Syd teleported back to the slave quarters, Jessie was pacing. She immediately stopped when she saw Syd. Her face completely ashen, Syd told her what she saw.  
"You...are...lying..." Jessie whispered, not believing Syd.  
"I'm serious, Aunt Jessie..."  
"Des broke through the mind control, remember?"  
"Yes, but they injected her with it again...."  
Jessie's face went completely rigid.  
"I would have gotten him....but they would have killed me. He might still be alive..."  
Jessie was dead quiet for the rest of the day, Syd decided to do something about it that evening. Sneaking out of the quarters and to the training arena, she met the half-dead boy. Picking him up gently, he opened his eyes. "Syd?" He managed to cough out his cousin's name.  
"Yeah, it's me. I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?"  
"Okay..." Drew agreed weakly before fainting. Syd returned to the small room. "Aunt Jessie," she spoke quietly. "look." Jessie looked up at Syd. "Oh my God. He's alive?" Syd merely nodded, handing the small boy to her aunt. Jessie hugged her child. "Thank you, Syd."  
"You're welcome." Syd grinned.  
As Jessie softly hummed 'Amazing Grace' to Drew, Syd fell asleep once again, exhausted from her recent excursion. Less than five minutes after falling asleep, she felt her arms and legs being shackled, and her body being dragged somewhere. "Wake up!" the S-Clone (or D-Clone, Syd couldn't tell) hissed. "Time to face your sister."  
"What?" Syd asked groggily.  
"You heard me!"  
Syd groaned and got up, Des walked out from behind the shadows, glaring menacingly at her twin.  
"Des..."  
Des' only response was water spirals surrounding her hands. 


	8. Escape

A/N: Just noticed a goof in the story....Syd says Jessie's slavery wasn't part of the deal....but that was wrong....it was. So, never mind that.  
  
Syd was taken aback due to the sudden violent tendencies of her sister. As Des lunged, aiming for Syd's neck, thinking quickly, Syd ducked out of the way. She flared her hands, although she knew that Des was immune to the flames. "Ready to die, Sydney?"  
"As if you could catch me." Syd glared defiantly at her sister, confident that this time she would win. With one mighty blow, Des had knocked out her sister, whom was believed to be the strongest of the two. It all made sense to Syd now, the clone was behind everything, trying to break her spirit. The clone would surely kill her soon, she was obviously toying with Syd, bringing her to near-death several times.  
"Well, she's dead." The S-Clone observed. "Great job, Destiny."  
"Thank you." Des responded.  
Syd was an expert at holding her breath for extremely long periods of time, and no one else knew this about her. Des stepped back as the water slowly surrounded Syd's body like a whirlpool, and Syd opened her eyes, very much alive. Syd jumped up to the ceiling, striking a Spiderman-like pose, and stuck her tongue out. Almost immediately, the agile raven-haired heroine was blasted with water, making her lose her balance and fall.  
Crashing through a picture window and out of the lair, Syd and Des struggled to beat the other. The two somersaulted down a nearby ramp, down a hill, and into a small, shallow ravine. Des' head struck a rock, knocking her unconscious. Syd cautiously helped her sister up, and looked back at the lair. Drew was running towards them, panicking. He immediately ran over to Syd, wrapping his arms around her neck. "Drew? What's wrong?" Syd asked.  
"They've got my mom!"  
"What?" Syd's voice was shaky now.  
"The clones are trying to kill my mom, Syd!"  
"Drew. Listen to me carefully, okay?"  
Drew nodded. Syd continued.  
"I need you to get Des up, then I want you to hide. I'll find you later, okay?" Syd rested her hands on Drew's shoulders to get his attention.  
"Okay."  
The clones were expecting Syd's return. Syd knew they were waiting for her, and she cautiously infiltrated the clones' enormous lair, a size that would rival that of Senor Senior, Sr's. Syd scaled the wall, turned the corner, and saw Jessie, chained to the wall. The clones were nowhere to be found. Syd motioned for Jessie to keep quiet as Syd melted the restraints with her hands, Jessie bit her lip to keep from screaming. "Sorry," Syd mouthed an apology.  
The two quickly managed to sneak out, undetected by the clones, and Drew and Des, who had been acclimated to the current situation, she was no longer subject to the clones' mind control. Quickly, the group of four managed to set up camp. 


End file.
